Western Australia Senate election result will harden resolve on carbon tax: Abbott

National political reporter

Tony Abbott has declared that his government’s disappointing result in the WA Senate election will only increase his resolve to scrap the carbon and mining taxes.

The Prime Minister has also described the dive in support for the Liberal Party at Saturday’s Senate election re-run as a typical by-election result.

Primary votes for the Liberal and Labor parties have dropped about 5 per cent in the count thus far, while the Greens have picked up a swing of about 6 per cent.

Clive Palmer’s Palmer United Party, which outspent the Liberal Party by nearly 10 to one on television advertising, gained a swing of about 7.5 per cent.

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The rerun will give the Liberals two seats and Labor’s controversial Senate candidate Joe Bullock has won a seat.

The swing to the Greens is expected to see Scott Ludlam retain his seat, with the Palmer United Party, Labor’s Louise Pratt and Liberal Linda Reynolds fighting it out for the fifth and six seats.

The ABC’s election analyst Antony Green has predicted PUP candidate Dio Wang and Ms Reynolds will claim the final two spots. On this result, the government would need to negotiate with Mr Palmer’s party in order to pass its legislation in the Senate.

Speaking to reporters in Tokyo, where the government is negotiating a free trade agreement, Mr Abbott said there was nothing in Saturday’s vote “to suggest that the voters have suddenly decided they love the carbon or mining tax.”

Asked if he would move for a double dissolution on the carbon tax, Mr Abbott said he expected the new Senate from July 1 to respect the government’s mandate.

“This government is absolutely committed to eliminating the carbon tax and the mining tax,” he said.

“If there was one thing that we took to the Australian people above all else, it was scrapping the carbon tax.

“Sure, we said we’d stop the boats, we said we’d get the budget under control, we said we’d build the roads of the 21st century but front and centre was the elimination of the carbon tax and I certainly expect the Senate on 1 July to respect the Government’s mandate.

“There was absolutely nothing in this vote yesterday to suggest that the voters have suddenly decided they love the carbon or mining tax.”

Labor’s shadow assistant treasurer Andrew Leigh was confident Ms Pratt would win the contest for the final Senate spot.

Asked how much of a factor Labor’s lead candidate Joe Bullock had been in the party’s poor result, Mr Leigh said: ‘‘Joe’s a passionate warrior for the Labor cause.’’

The party was forced to go on the defensive over preselecting Mr Bullock following reports of his 1996 conviction for assault, his record of voting for the Liberal party and comments that Labor could not be trusted and was full of mad members.

WA Labor frontbencher Gary Gray said since 1990 Labor had found it increasingly difficult to win traction federally in his state.

‘‘We peaked in many ways in 1998, when we had a strong federal Labor leader (Kim Beazley) from WA,’’ he told ABC television.

‘‘Our party does need to set about the business of building itself in a new and modern WA and better relating to people in WA as a federal organisation.’’

Mr Abbott said the swing against the government was a typical result for a by-election.

“You get a pretty broad range of candidates and a pretty broad range of voting in by-elections, but what we can be very certain of is that candidates who are against the carbon tax and against the mining tax have performed very strongly,” Mr Abbott said.

“There is an overwhelming rejection of the carbon tax and the mining tax on these results.”

It comes after a WA campaign in which the government accused mining magnate Mr Palmer of trying to “buy seats” through an advertising blitz.

Foreign Minister and WA MP Julie Bishop told the ABC’s Insiders on Sunday “we have a good opportunity to have a constructive relationship with Clive Palmer.”

“In a campaign, of course parties have a go at each other, they are trying to win votes, and some things were said by Clive Palmer, some things were said by our side of politics but at the end of the day we are there to serve the Australian people,” Ms Bishop said.

“So we will be negotiating with whomever we have to negotiate with in the Senate to deliver on our promises to the Australian people.”